India Starts Vaccine Drive As Global Deaths Top 2 Million
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JAMADA ALTHANI 4, 1442 AH SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 2021 16 Pages Max 22º Min 07º 150 Fils Established 1961 ISSUE NO: 18336 The First Daily in the Arabian Gulf www.kuwaittimes.net Abbas announces Palestinian Talal Al-Ajmi Al-Danah grand Desert off-roading final Historic divides fuel Man 5 elections for May and July 10 prize winner of KD 1,500,000 13 frontier for Qatar women 15 United, Liverpool rivalry India starts vaccine drive as global deaths top 2 million Lebanon hits record coronavirus deaths, infections NEW DELHI: India kicked off one of the world’s worst-funded healthcare systems. Regular child largest coronavirus vaccination drives yesterday as inoculations are a “much smaller game” and vacci- the pandemic spread at a record pace and global nating against COVID-19 will be “deeply challeng- COVID-19 deaths surged past two million. The ing”, said Satyajit Rath from India’s National World Health Organization has called for accelerat- Institute of Immunology. ing vaccine rollouts worldwide as well as ramping up The government has readied tens of thousands of efforts to study the sequencing of the virus, which refrigeration tools and about 150,000 specially has infected more than 93 million people globally trained staff to try and overcome some of those since it was first detected in China in late 2019. challenges. The vaccines will also have high securi- India, home to 1.3 billion people, has the world’s ty, so that doses do not end up being sold on India’s second-largest caseload. The government has given large black market for medicines. WHO chief Tedros approvals to two vaccines - though one is yet to Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Friday said he wanted complete clinical trials - aiming to inoculate around “to see vaccination under way in every country in 300 million people by July. One of the first to the next 100 days so that health workers and those receive a jab in the eastern city of Kolkata was 35- at high risk are protected first”. year-old health worker Santa Roy, who told AFP he His call came as infections snowballed, with now saw a “ray of hope” after witnessing people die 724,000 new cases recorded on average per day of the coronavirus. globally over the past week, according to AFP’s tally Authorities say they are drawing on their experi- - a record 10 percent increase on a week earlier. ence with elections and child immunization pro- The worrying spikes in deaths and infections come KUWAIT: Environment Public Authority and Kuwait coastguard personnel remove the carcass of a grams for the drive, which is a daunting task in an as concerns and criticism grow over vaccine logis- whale found near Jaber Causeway yesterday. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat enormous, impoverished nation with often shoddy tics and supply issues in many parts of the world. transport infrastructure and one of the world’s Continued on Page 2 Iran’s armed forces chief of staff Iran test-fires Major General Mohammad Bagheri was present on the second day of the WhatsApp delays drill, alongside Guards chief Major missiles on General Hossein Salami and aero- data share update space commander Brigadier General targets at sea Amirali Hajizadeh. “One of our major goals in defense policies and strate- after backlash TEHRAN: Iran’s Revolutionary gies is to be able to target enemy SAN FRANCISCO: WhatsApp on Friday Guards test-fired ballistic missiles ships, including aircraft carriers and postponed a data-sharing change as users con- against targets in the Indian Ocean as battleships, using long-range ballistic cerned about privacy fled the Facebook-owned they wrapped up a two-day exercise, missiles,” Salami said, quoted by messaging service and flocked to rivals their official website reported yester- Sepahnews. Telegram and Signal. The smartphone app, a day. The missiles of “various classes” Bagheri said the launch showed huge hit across the world, canceled its Feb 8 targeted “the enemy’s battleships and Iran was ready to respond to any “ill deadline for accepting an update to its terms destroyed them from 1,800 km away,” will” by its enemies, warning that in concerning sharing data with Facebook, saying according to the Sepahnews website. such cases “they will be targeted and it would use the pause to clear up misinforma- The missiles were fired from central destroyed by our missiles”. “We do tion around privacy and security. Iran at targets located in the northern not intend to carry out any attack,” he “We’ve heard from so many people how Indian Ocean, the Guards said. A said, adding the exercise showed Iran’s much confusion there is around our recent video released by state television readiness to defend itself “with all its This handout photo shows a launch of missiles during a military drill in update,” WhatsApp said in a blog post. “This showed two missiles being launched strength” against any aggressor. an unknown location in central Iran yesterday. — AFP update does not expand our ability to share and targets being hit at sea. Continued on Page 2 data with Facebook.” It said it would instead “go to people gradually to review the policy at their own pace before new business options are above 8,000 m to be topped in wintertime. Secretary Karrar Haidri added the club was help- available on May 15”. Nepal team claim “WE DID IT,” tweeted Seven Summit Treks, a ing to coordinate the evacuation of the body, but The update concerns how merchants using trekking company leading one of the expeditions. with weather conditions expected to be poor WhatsApp to chat with customers can share first winter ascent “The Karakorum’s ‘Savage Mountain’ been summit- overnight, it would be done today morning. The data with Facebook, which could use the infor- ed in most dangerous season: winter. Nepalese name “Savage Mountain” comes from the punishing mation for targeted ads, according to the social climbers finally reached the summit of Mt K2 this conditions there - winds can blow at more than 200 network. “We can’t see your private messages of Pakistan’s K2 afternoon at 17:00 local time.” km per hour and temperatures can drop to minus 60 or hear your calls, and neither can Facebook,” But the success was overshadowed by the death degrees Celsius. Since the maiden attempt in 1987- WhatsApp said in an earlier blog post. “We ISLAMABAD: A team of Nepali climbers made his- of a Spanish climber, Sergi Mingote, lower down the 1988, just a handful of winter expeditions have been don’t keep logs of who everyone is messaging or tory yesterday after becoming the first to summit mountain. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez tried on the storied 8,611-metre (28,250-foot) peak calling. We can’t see your shared location and Pakistan’s K2 in winter, on the same afternoon a described him as a “great sportsman” on Twitter, in the Karakoram range along the Chinese border. neither can Facebook.” Spanish mountaineer fell and died lower down the writing: “He wanted to keep on making history... and None had got higher than 7,650 m until yesterday, Location data along with message contents is perilous peak. Dozens of climbers have been com- a tragic accident ended his life.” The Alpine Club of when the good conditions allowed the successful encrypted end-to-end, according to WhatsApp. peting over the past few weeks to summit the Pakistan said in a statement that the climber fell team to push ahead. “We’re giving businesses the option to use world’s second highest mountain, the last peak while descending to Base Camp shortly before 4 pm. Continued on Page 2 secure hosting services from Facebook to man- age WhatsApp chats with their customers, answer questions, and send helpful information identified said Trump would go to his like purchase receipts,” WhatsApp said in a Trump to leave Mar-a-Lago golf club in Florida, post. “Whether you communicate with a busi- which is his legal residence and will ness by phone, email, or WhatsApp, it can see town before become home after the White House. what you’re saying and may use that information He is expected to be out of town well for its own marketing purposes, which may before Biden is sworn in on the steps include advertising on Facebook.” inauguration of the Capitol building at exactly noon. Technology experts note that WhatsApp’s After spending more than two new requirement of its users makes legally bind- WASHINGTON: By the time Joe months trying to overturn the results ing a policy that has been widely in use since Biden is sworn in as the 46th US presi- of the November election, pushing 2016. Facebook aims to monetize WhatsApp by dent Wednesday, his scandal-tainted false conspiracy theories about fraud, allowing businesses to contact clients via the predecessor Donald Trump will Trump’s presence had not been platform, making it natural for the internet giant already be far away, having heli- expected at the inauguration. The final to centralize some data on its servers. coptered out of the White House a last straw came on Jan 6 when Trump The Turkish Competition Authority said it is time earlier that morning, an official gathered a huge crowd of supporters opening an investigation and requiring said Friday. Trump will be the first on the National Mall and once more WhatsApp to suspend the data sharing president in a century and a half to claimed that they had to fight to stop a WASHINGTON: National Guard troops are seen on the lawn of the US Continued on Page 2 snub the inauguration of his successor.